Vancouver Canucks forward Zack Kassian is off to a rough start this season. After serving a suspension for a high-sticking incident in the preseason, he has just two goals in nine games this year including one on Monday night against the Washington Capitals.

“Zack Kassian? Good at times. Crappy at times. But he’s coming. He’s coming. He still has to work on his consistency, having the puck, protecting the puck. So he wasn’t too bad,” Tortorella said.

There’s no real beating around the bush on that one.

Kassian has been playing an average of over 12 minutes per game this season so that means he’s got to make the most of his opportunities when he’s out there. Turning the puck over won’t help him endear himself to his new coach, but more goals and hits would do the trick.

Throughout the season, NBCSN will feature the NHL’s fiercest rivalries on Wednesday nights. Tonight the Boston Bruins will head to CONSOL Energy Center to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins at 8:00 p.m. ET. In addition to NBCSN, you can also watch the game online.

When the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in the Eastern Conference Final last season, many expected it to be a knock-down, drag-out war on the ice. Instead, the Bruins gave the Penguins the bum’s rush, sweeping them out in four straight.

Now that they’re meeting for the first time this season, both teams have seen plenty of changes. Jarome Iginla switched sides, signing with the Bruins over the summer after choosing to be traded to Pittsburgh instead of Boston from Calgary last season.

Gone are Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley, and Nathan Horton and new guy Loui Eriksson is out with a concussion, although that’s getting better. Boston’s favorite player to hate, Matt Cooke, left Pittsburgh for Minnesota in the offseason, taking some of the heat of this rivalry with him.

The Penguins return home coming off a win against the Carolina Hurricanes. Before that, however, they had lost three in a row. Kris Letang’s return to action helped get their defense back to full speed for all of a game and a half before Rob Scuderi went out with an ankle injury.

The Bruins would like to forget all about their loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night. Boston held a 3-1 lead after the first period only to see the struggling Devils chip away and score twice in the final two minutes en route to a 4-3 win. You’d never know the Bruins had won four in a row previous to that with how disappointed they were in losing to the Devils.

This game boils down to its stars though. David Krejci and Milan Lucic lead the way on offense for Boston while Sidney Crosby has 20 points in 12 games to lead the NHL. Patrice Bergeron may have his hands full in trying to shut down Crosby the way he and Zdeno Chara did in the playoffs.

In goal, Tuukka Rask is off to a great start for Boston and Marc-Andre Fleury is playing strong in his own right for the Penguins.

“It started aching during the evening. I had a fever and my other leg began to swell up,” Rinne said. “The next day I was sent to the operating surgeons . From there they took samples, and they were sent to a laboratory. They found a bacterial infection.”

“I will be taking antibiotics for a while now. I have a cannula in my arm for four weeks.”

What Rinne is dealing with sounds eerily similar to what Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun has with his blood clot issue that put him on the shelf for 3-6 months. Fortunately for the Predators, Rinne is only slated to miss a month.